Penelope Boothby

Penelope Boothby (11 April 1785 – 13 March 1791) was a girl who has become one of the most famous child characters in British art. Her image inspired the paintings by Joshua Reynolds, Henry Fuseli, John Everett Millais, a sculpture by Thomas Banks, photographs of Lewis Carroll, as well as sonnets of Brooke Boothby, her father.

According to art historians and historians, in the art of the 19th–20th centuries Penelope Boothby became a classic child of the Romantic era, the keeper of heavenly innocence, a symbol of "what we have lost and what we are afraid to lose". The image of Penelope was actively exploited by popular culture throughout the 20th century.